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Standards & Accountability

Resetting school accountability, from the bottom up

Aaron Churchill Chad L. Aldis
6.8.2020
6.8.2020

After a one-year pause in Ohio's school accountability system, the road back to normalcy is uncertain. Fordham's new policy brief titled Resetting school accountability, from the bottom up offers a clear and concise plan to restart state assessments and school report cards. It also proposes solutions that would resolve several hot-button accountability debates, including the use of report card ratings to drive formal policy decisions.

The report includes the following recommendations for 2020–2021:

  • Administer state exams and report all assessment data, but withhold all school ratings
  • Repeal the state’s academic distress commission law
  • Eliminate automatic closure for charter schools
  • Review and evaluate Ohio’s existing school improvement efforts

Starting in 2021–2022, the recommendations include:

  • Implement a revamped report card and issue school ratings
  • Pare back eligibility for performance-based EdChoice vouchers
  • Expand eligibility for income-based EdChoice vouchers
  • Require, subject to capacity, district participation in open enrollment
  • Remove geographic restrictions on charter schools
  • Expand the number of districts eligible for regulatory exemptions
  • Provide bonus funding to both high achieving and improving schools
  • Expand the quality charter school incentive fund

Taken together, these recommendations would allow Ohio to restart—and reset—its education policies in a way that puts transparency about student outcomes and Ohio families and communities at the heart of school accountability.

Policy Priority:
Standards & Accountability
Topics:
Accountability & Testing
Accountability resent paper cover
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Aaron Churchill is the Ohio research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where he has worked since 2012. In this role, Aaron oversees a portfolio of research projects aimed at strengthening education policy in Ohio. He also writes regularly on Fordham’s blog, the Ohio Gadfly Daily, and contributes analytic support for…

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Chad Aldis joined the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in 2013 and is the institute’s Vice President for Ohio Policy. In this role, Chad plans and leads Fordham’s Ohio policy, advocacy, and research agenda. He represents the Institute in its work with state and local policy makers, the media, other education reform groups, and the public.

Chad has a strong background in…

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